ASM International NV (ASM) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Shareholder Meeting of ASM International. First of all, I'm very pleased to see you here in the Van der Valk Hotel. After 2 years of virtual-only meetings, we will have a hybrid meeting today. And I welcome all participants, both online as here in meeting room. As usual, I will start in English, I will switch to Dutch in a minute, but before I have some information for you. The meeting, as I said, will be in Dutch. However, certain parts will be in English, like, for example, the presentation of our CEO, Benjamin Loh, at agenda item 2; and when Benjamin provides an answer to questions raised, of course, will also be in English. Also Mr. Didier Lamouche, the Supervisory Board member, who is share of the Nomination Selection and the Remuneration Committee, will present and provide answers in English. The meeting can also be viewed through a webcast. The webcast is both in English and in Dutch. And there will be a simultaneous translation in English for everyone who does not understand Dutch. And we have -- when everything is okay, [indiscernible] with equipment in the room. [Interpreted] Now I would like to welcome you all, i.e., both the shareholders who participate virtually and certainly also the shareholders here in the room. And we're very happy that after 2 years, finally, we can meet again at least wherein regards that present in the room with us. And then a number of formal announcements, if I may. This year, it was decided to organize a hybrid meeting. And it means that the meeting can be attended here in the room or virtually from behind your laptop screen. Dutch legislation makes this possible. And what it offers you, our shareholders, is a choice. As in the past, if you've registered, you can vote here and you were also able to cast your vote by proxy. And finally then, we offer the opportunity to vote online during the meeting. So this is for people connected online with us. And here, you see all the technology that is there. We also have at ASM, and I'm sure you rightly expected this. And all these things were already pointed out in the convocation as well. Now all the documents for the meeting were posted on the company's website on 1st April. And the convocation that was issued on that same day also states that the full agenda with explanatory notes and the annual report 2021, which includes, of course, among other things, the management report for 2021 and the annual accounts for 2021. And also all other attachments were made available for the shareholders inspection at the office of the company and at ABN AMRO Bank NV in Amsterdam. And the U.S. proxy card and U.S. notice were also placed on the website as well as sent. And for the sake of completeness, let me say that the registration date was 18th April 2022 for all of this. Now based on all of this, I can then conclude that the shareholders have been correctly convened in accordance with the Articles of Association and the legal provisions and that, therefore, resolutions may be validly made at this meeting. Then I hardly need to say this, but you can see here before you, in fact, all members of the Supervisory Board and Management Board present at the meeting today. And you see us all here behind the table. And there's also with us, Mr. Michel van Agt, who is civil law notary at Loyens & Loeff, and he's keeping an eye on us today, and will take care of the minutes of the meeting as well. And this is, again, in full accordance with the Articles of Association of the company, namely Article 26.2. Finally, we have our accountant, who is Frederik Croiset van Uchelen of KPMG, and he will shortly give an explanation of the way in which KPMG has carried out its audit. So that is our external auditor. Then in regard to any questions relating to the agenda. Let me say the following. As indicated in the convocation, registered shareholders were able to submit written questions until 2:00 of last Monday, 9th May via the e-mail address. And I can inform you that no use was made of this option and therefore, no questions have been received at that e-mail address. And of course, I hope that the e-mail address was correct or else, we will find some things in our spam box perhaps. Furthermore, you may have read in the convocation that shareholders have had and still have various options to ask questions. You, attendees in the room can ask questions using one of the microphones, I think there's 2 or 3 in the room, for the various agenda items. And if you ask to speak, I would request that you begin by mentioning your name and who you represent. And in addition, I would ask that you ask no more than 3 questions, any single round also to give others the opportunity to ask questions. Now shareholders have chosen to attend the meeting virtually and to vote real time during the meeting can ask questions in the chat. And I also asked them to mention the name in the chat. And these chats are being kept track of behind the table there and will be forwarded to us behind the table if all is well. And it also means that for each agenda item, we have to check for a little while, whether questions are being asked via the various media. Questions may be asked either in Dutch or English, with answers given in either Dutch or English, depending on who is answering the question. Questions and answers asked during the meeting will not be posted on the website, but will, of course, be included in the minutes of this meeting. And they naturally will be posted on the website. And may I also remind you that after the meeting, you can turn out the sound of your mobile phones again. In accordance with recommendation, 4.1.10 of the Dutch Corporate Governance, the minutes of the meeting will be posted in draft form on the website within 3 months and shareholders will then have 3 months to respond to them or point out to us any incorrectness. As I've also indicated already, both Dutch and English will be spoken throughout the meeting. The presentation of Benjamin Loh, our CEO, and also his answers to questions will be in English. He's taking Dutch lessons, but he's not quite there yet. And that will also apply then to the short presentation of Didier Lamouche, who, as I said, is member of the Supervisory Board and Chair of one of the committees. Then there is that live webcast again, which is available in both English and Dutch and is made available to shareholders via the company's website. And then I'll give some voting information because before we move on to agenda item 2, which is our first voting item, I will inform you about the voting. As I mentioned, there are the following possibilities to cast your vote. The shareholders in the room, who have registered at the desk vote during this meeting by using an app on their mobile phones. So that is a kind of virtual voting box, if you like, a virtual voting device at any rate, because the voting devices here on the room -- in the room are, of course, not virtual, but real. You're also able to vote by proxy. And if you did so, you already gave your voting instructions to Michel van Agt, who is our civil law notary, I mentioned to you before, and he will ensure that your voting instructions are carried out in the way that you indicated. For U.S. proxies by New York Registry shareholders, the voting instruction will also be lawfully implemented. Now if you registered for that virtual meeting, and this is the people who are with us from behind the screen, and you're taking part as such, it means that you have now accessed the Lumi application. Lumi is our service provider. This was done then via the ABN AMRO website, and you can follow this meeting through this application. And also you can vote using that. However, everything will become much easier once we're all back in a room together as I hear, which is my view when I read all this out to you. Now as you may have seen, our agenda item 9 concerns the appointment of Mr. M’Saad as a member of the Management Board. And that item will only be put to the vote if agenda item 8, which regards the New Remuneration Policy of the Management Board is adopted with more than 75% of our votes. Now therefore, those voting items will be dealt with as follows. We will work with a number of so-called voting blocks. And at the end of each block, I will show you what the voting results are. And those blocks are subdivided as follows. The first block voting regards agenda items 2 to 8. The second is for agenda item 9 only. And the third block voting regards agenda items 10 through 14. Now during each block, it's an awkward word, I think, in English, but it says the interpreter, but you may vote for all the voting items in that block. So only for the voting items of that particular block, just to make this very clear, not anything else that comes later. And this applies for both the people in the room who have registered and for the people, who are voting virtually from home through the Lumi application. And at the end of each block, I will show you the voting results. And again, to be absolutely clear, I will show the voting results of all the voting items on the agenda again at the end of the meeting. The results of the vote will also be posted on the company's website within 15 days. So this is with regards to all the voting items there. Well, I think this is about all that I had to say in terms of practical comments and then we'll move to agenda item 2, and this is up for our discussion. It regards the report on the financial year 2021, and I'll ask the Board of Management to report on the activities and results in and for the financial year 2021. Benjamin, please.

Thank you, Martin. Also, a very good afternoon from my side. I think it's absolutely splendid to see at least the faces and not a screen, which we have been trying to do over the last 2 years. Maybe just one clarification. Martin mentioned that I was taking Dutch lessons. They are not going to go anywhere because I'm learning from a 5-year-old girl, who is the granddaughter of my partner, and you can understand how good my Dutch is. So don't count on it. I'm going to present the 2021 financial year, of course, on behalf of the Management Board, which is myself and my colleague here, Paul Verhagen, the CFO. I think by all measures, 2021 was a great year for the company. And we enjoyed tailwinds from the growth in the semiconductor industry, but it was by no means an easy year because of supply chain disruptions, because of pandemic and so on. So I will try to go through this as fast as I can. The usual cautionary note regarding forward-looking statements. And today's agenda -- first of all, I'm going to start with a couple of key takeaways and then dive into the results for 2021. I'm going to share with you a little bit on the outlook of 2022 this year. And maybe touch a little bit on what we do or what -- as a company, we are trying to accelerate our focus activities in ESG. And finally, a look at what are the mid-term look and priorities and prospects for the company. So key takeaways. I think ASM International did a great job in executing the strategy that we have put for ourselves. We grew the top line by 34% at constant currencies in 2021. The company continues to invest in R&D, in manufacturing and also in the organizational capabilities. And in terms of people, we hired actually or we increased our headcount by almost 30%, about 28% last year, and we are continuing to increase the number of people in the company because we have so many opportunities and activities going on. We accelerated our focus on sustainability with the aim to achieve net-zero emission by 2035. And we will talk about that a little bit more later on. And finally, in terms of our midterm revenue target of EUR 2.4 billion to EUR 2.8 billion to EUR 3.4 billion, which we shared at our Investor Day last year, we are very confident that we will be able to reach that target by 2025, including an operating margin of between 26% to 31%. So maybe diving into the business and results review. 2021 was characterized by acceleration in digitalization. So the whole industry grew by about 26%. And actually, the industry for the first time crossed the USD 500 billion mark for the first time last year. I spoke about demand coming from semiconductor tailwind. So demand will be strong for semiconductor products, which translated into a semiconductor equipment and other investments as well. But at the same time, the whole industry was plagued by supply chain shortages because demand was outstripping supply. And there were also constraints that came about because of the pandemic. We were very fortunate that the investment in our new Singapore facility was very timely. That came about at the end of 2020, just in time to help us significantly expand our capacity, and we are going to expand even further as I will touch on later on. With the growth in the company, we are continuously improving our business processes, IT and other support functions to meet the rapid growth. And that's actually also part of the growth in the people that we have witnessed in '21, and we are still witnessing. And ultimately, we delivered a record-breaking year, growing the top line by 34% at constant currencies. So in terms of record-breaking year, so whether it's revenue, whether it's equipment revenue, whether it's recurring space and service revenue, we broke all the records. It was all the record high for the year. And a lot of our business has been driven by the logic and foundry sector, which is where we have our biggest strength. But at the same time, I think we made a lot of significant progress in the memory market as well, some -- a segment which we are relatively smaller, but we have made significant gains in 2021. If you take a snapshot at the results of 2021 and compare it to what happened in 2020, you see actually all of the arrows are green. Revenue was up, of course. But maybe just to draw your attention, you see that the normalized net earnings was a huge increase of 70%. And you see that the gross margin, operating margin, everything was up. So compared to 2020, it was a good year for us in '21. And a little bit more on the financial performance, whether it's in terms of bookings, revenue, gross margins, et cetera. Here, I would like to draw your attention to the bookings, the operating result and the revenue. So you see a significant increase in bookings for the company in 2021, which, unfortunately, due to supply chain constraints, we were not able to deliver everything, but that sets up us very well for 2022 because a lot of the orders have been carried forward into this year. Operating result was a record of sales at EUR 491 million. And if you look at the gross margin that we have been improving over the last couple of years, and last year, we again did that, and we finished the year at 47.9%. Part of the strategy, of course, in the industry that we are in is technology, and we continue to churn out and introduce new products. So last year, we introduced the Intrepid ESA, an epitaxy deposition equipment that was targeted at atmospheric pressure applications, primarily in the power, analog and wafer manufacturers segment. And we have seen very good adoptions, and we have actually began to ship to multiple customers across the world for these applications. Previum is something that is required for surface cleaning, that is now a technology requirement in order to make sure that the surfaces that you deposit any kind of materials is pristine, is clean. And that's something that we have done last year as well together for our Epi products. And last, but not least, even though it's relatively older, the A400DUO vertical furnace was introduced about 2, 3 years ago, but I've included it here because we have seen very significant traction and adoption of this product across the world, including in China, where we have very good traction winning against domestic competition. And last but not least, not shown here, we have also started a new 300-millimeter vertical furnace product, which we will officially launch soon. It's actually the first vertical furnace, 300-millimeter product that we are launching in 23 years. So it's great, very exciting, and we are seeing a lot of attraction to that product. Customer awards, one of our strategies, of course, is to work very closely with customers to make sure that we are aligned with their road maps that we can support them. And here, we are very honored to be able to receive awards from 3 of our biggest customers. The Intel award, Intel EPIC Award for technology, TSMC for excellent performance for production support, we were 1 of only 6 companies that got that. And of course, Samsung for Best Collaboration Award in various areas, whether it's technology or whether it's support. So we are actually on a good track as far as supporting and aligning our road maps with our 3 biggest customers. Here is just a chart to show how we performed last year in terms of the share price. And I would say that we did very well. In fact, I think at the end of 2021, we were the best performing stock on the IAX (sic) [ AEX ]. And this year, even though it's a little bit more volatile, that we are still doing well. Hopefully, this continues because the stock market is out of our control. Next, jumping into this year. What is going to happen in 2022. So we look at the market that we play in, wafer fab equipment or WFE spending. It's growing very fast. If you look at 2021, the year ended at about 80 -- USD mid-80 billion kind of market size. And this year, it is expected to cross the USD 100 billion market size for the first time. And this will continue actually for the next couple of years as well. So we see a significant growth in a market that we are actually playing in. And a lot of this growth is driven by advances in technology and also increases in demand for semiconductors that is used in practically everything today. We see multiyear investments announced by all 3 of our customers. We see technology inflections, driving 3D transitions gate all around. And we also see some government efforts to try to secure semiconductor supply on their own, and that is actually also helping to drive increases in investments. Another way of looking at this is to look at the investments by the various technology nodes. And if you look at 2020, the color in blue, 7-nanometer and below was still relatively small. But when you look at 2021, that has increased significantly and going into 2022, it's going up even further and will continue to be at a high level. The reason for showing this is ASMI -- ASM International as a company, we play mostly on the leading edge nodes. So the more investments that happen at the leading-edge nodes, the better it is for us, actually plays to our strengths. And in terms of guidance that we provided with our first quarter earnings. So we do expect that supply chain conditions are going to remain challenging. And we have guided the second quarter to between EUR 540 million to EUR 570 million, which is a small sequential increase from where we finished in the first quarter at EUR 517 million. We do expect that for the second half, the revenue that we will be producing in the second half will be higher than the first half, of course, is subjected to supply chain conditions. Today, we still have some pockets of limited visibility in some parts of the supply chain. So it's kind of difficult for us to give a firm or quantifiable number, but we do expect second half to be better than the first half as some of the supply chain constraints are eased. And we expect that the wafer fab equipment or WFE equipment market is going to grow mid- to high teens. In fact, a lot of consensus puts that something like 17% to 18%, and we are very confident that we will outperform and outgrow the WFE market this year. We will continue. I think I'll touch a little bit on that expansion of our R&D and manufacturing. So across the world in all of our different sites, we are expanding. Belgium, we will probably start in '23, but that's really complete, not started. In Helsinki, we will start in the second half of 2022 to expand our lab. In Japan, I think the lab -- R&D lab expansion is almost finished or should be finished. We expanded our lab facilities in the U.S., in Phoenix already end of last year. And in Singapore, I will touch a little bit on later on. We expanded our manufacturing capacity. South Korea, we are going to expand in the second half. We start work in the second half. And last but not least, we also completed a training demo center in where we are in Almere early this year. So on Singapore, we have our biggest manufacturing facility that is responsible for about greater than 80% of our total output. And we finished the new building at the end of 2020. We've just [indiscernible] and we have recently had like an opening ceremony, where it was also a groundbreaking ceremony for us to start work on the second floor. So with that, we are going to triple our global capacity, which is necessary for us to attain or achieve our midterm target of EUR 2.8 billion to EUR 3.4 billion. Facility has been designed with sustainability in mind and it's certified that with the Green Mark Gold Plus. And last but not least, not just as a manufacturing facility in Singapore. We also have key members, senior members of the supply chain management, IT and global people. And maybe the number is already a little bit outdated. We have about 880 people in Singapore and growing by the day. Going into ESG. We start with, for example, what is the purpose, the mission and the strategy. So our purpose is actually simple. We refreshed the purpose, mission and strategy recently to make it easy, so that it's understood by every member of the ASMI International community. Our purpose is to improve people's lives to advancing technologies that unlock new potential. And our mission is to enable our customer success by creating leading-edge semiconductor process -- products, services and new materials. And our strategy is even simpler. Our strategy is growth to innovation. So innovation is a significant part of our growth strategy. And when we look at what supports the purpose, the mission and the strategy, we look at what are the principles that guide us and we come to, okay, what is -- what are the core values of ASM. And the core values are we care, we innovate, we deliver. You probably heard some of that on the movie as well. These are the 3 core values that really guide our behavior, guide our decision-making and in almost everything that we do going forward. Focus on sustainability. We have 5 different pillars. We have the innovation pillar, the people pillar, planet pillar, responsible supply chain pillar and last but not least, the governance pillar. And we have been looking at this actually over the last couple of years in various degrees. But last year, we decided to put all of them into a more cohesive ESG strategy and to accelerate our focus. And one of the things that we did, of course, in terms of planet or environment was -- at our Investor Day, we announced our ambitions to become a net-zero emission by 2035, which by itself is an extremely challenging target, but we are committed to try our best to do that. Innovation, of course, is always at the heart of ASM International. For the last 50-something years, the company has always strived on innovation, has always been the technology leader, has always been a company that helps to move the semiconductor industry forward. People, again, I will have another slide after this, but people has always been the core assets of the company. They are actually the biggest assets of the company. Responsible supply chain with our membership with the Responsible Business Alliance, association and so on. We try to do our best as far as the responsible supply chain is concerned. And last but not least, governance. One of the things that we have actually done is, of course, also to change the management board and the management team structure, with adding third management board member and creating an executive committee. People and culture. So we look at this as our biggest asset, people. And we try to create an environment where people have every single possible opportunity to grow, to develop a career and to be happy within the ASM family. And the areas that we focus on are leadership and development. So we try to provide as many opportunities as possible to all our employees to develop themselves. Engagement. We truly believe that only when you have employees that are engaged, can you really make a difference as far as the company and being competitive is concerned. Culture. We spoke about that. One of the areas that we are focusing on, of course, is the 3 core values that leads to a culture, a corporate culture. And last but not least, as part of our sustainability or ESG agenda, inclusion and diversity. And here, we have a target that by 2025, we would like to increase or we are targeting that the proportion or the population of female employees will increase from 15% to 20% by 2025. And of course, targeting net-zero 2035. So our achievements in 2021 includes the 4 out of 5 key sites are already on 100% renewable electricity or electricity from renewable sources. And that is actually 76% of the total of our consumption. And we have a midterm target that by 2024, we want to be 100% renewable electricity by 2024, and I think we are on a good track to get there. Actually, what we have done in 2021 already represents 67% absolute reduction of our Scope 1 and 2. So we still have some way to go, but we have made very good progress as far as 2021 is concerned. And again, this year, what we are doing is really to focus on revaluating our Scope 1 and 2. We're also measuring our Scope 3 emissions. And our target is that by the end of this year or early next year, our validation and our, let's say, progress, including our plans will be submitted to SBTi for validation. And once that is done, we will be able to share that with the wider community. And we also hope that we can publish our climate transition plan early 2022 after the validation by the SBTi. A little bit of breaking news that we are quite proud of. A few days ago, the Euronext announced a new index called the IAX (sic) [ AEX ] at ESG Index, and we are on it and very proud that we are one of the 25 companies that were included in the index. Midterm outlook and a little bit on the priorities. So the strategic objectives of the company. We have shared this with all the investors, all analysts during the Investor Day is to maintain our leading share in ALD, also expand in memory; increase our Epi market share; selectively grow in vertical furnaces and PECVD, so that's an area where, earlier on, I touched on about the new products; grow spares and service business; accelerated or accelerating progress in sustainability; and, of course, drive a continued strong financial performance. And the enablers of our strategic objectives really are 5 different elements. People, I think that I've said that it's really our key asset. Leading-edge innovation. And this is something that, again, we have been investing in R&D. We have been putting a lot of our resources into making sure that we are at the forefront of technology because where we play in, in the leading-edge nodes, technology is exceptionally key. Early customer engagements, and we are very proud and happy that some of our work has been recognized by our customers. In fact, the 3 biggest customers earned us awards. Flawless operational excellence, weather it is in terms of providing service to our customers, quality, et cetera, we still have some work to do, but we are improving significantly. And last but not least, strong financial performance, strong financial position so that we can continue to invest in the company, invest in the growth of the company, especially in R&D and in the people and anything. We also have a policy of paying a sustainable dividend and any excess cash will be used for the benefit of all shareholders. What we're really doing, ASM International is shaping the future. So if you look back at the last 40 years or so, starting maybe with desktop computing, our products or, let's say, the -- our equipment is used to make products that go into a lot of these advanced gadgets, starting from desktop computing in the '80s to autonomous driving today. And this is going to continue with the metaverse, the IoT and so on. So we look at ourselves as a company that is enabling the future, and that's very important. And there are other things that we enable, for example, electronics in health care and so on. Those -- we are very proud of that -- our equipment are used to make components that go into those kind of machines that helps to improve health care and people's lives. And when you look at conductor sales by key applications, this is roughly what is going to happen over the next 5 years. It's just going to go. Like I said, 2022 or 2021 was the first year semiconductor sales crossed the USD 500 billion mark. And the projection is that by 2030, it will double to USD 1 trillion. So you will just continue to grow because there are so many different applications, so many different drivers of semiconductors today. For us, the long-term outlook looks really solid. We do believe that the semiconductor market is going to continue to grow. And as I said, reach perhaps USD 1 trillion in 2030. All this is driven by various applications that are data-intensive, compute-intensive, that is ever demanding for more powerful, less, let's say, power usage kind of semiconductors. And when we look at where our customers are moving, we see that a lot of them are committed to making multiyear investments. They have projected the investments over the next 3 to 4 years because they can see that the demand is very significant over the next couple of years. This is something that we also shared with the analysts and investors during our Investor Day last year in September. These are our targets, where we ended in 2021 and our midterm targets in 2025. So we do expect to grow to EUR 2.8 billion to EUR 3.4 billion by 2025, representing a 16% to 21% CAGR. Gross margins will be in the range of 46% to 50%. SG&A will be as high single digit by that time, and R&D is either high single digit to low teens and operating margins in the range of 26% to 31%. Now of course, besides financial targets, we also have nonfinancial targets. And part of it is, of course, a greenhouse gas emission and our very significant ambition to get to a net-zero by 2035, for all 3 Scopes 1, 2 and 3. We want to get to a 100% renewable electricity by 2024. And safety, which is a major, let's say, thing within the company. We want to make sure that we continue to be one of the industry does as far as safety is concerned. Once again, the key takeaways, just so that everybody remembers the key takeaways. We continue to execute our strategy. We grew our top line by 34% in 2021. We continue to invest in R&D, manufacturing, organizational capabilities because there's significant demand and also a lot of opportunities in front of us. We grew headcount by 28% in 2021, and we are still continuing to grow our head count and also trying to ensure that people and culture are key priorities for building the next phase of the company. We are confident that we will be able to outperform the wafer fab equipment market this year, which is expected to be a mid- to high teens, and we do expect that our second half revenue will be higher than the first half, depending on the improvements in supply chain. We are continuing to accelerate our focus on sustainability. And we're also confident that we will reach our midterm target of EUR 2.8 billion to EUR 3.4 billion by 2025, with an operating margin of between 26% to 31%. So that is the update as far as the company is concerned.

[Interpreted] Right. It's always tricky. My apologies. I didn't have the microphone on. This is your opportunity to ask questions, and I see the first hands going up on the first row.

[Interpreted] [ Stefanie Klanses of VBDO ], Sustainable Development Investors, is my name. And I'd like to ask something about the ESG policy of ASMI. First of all, we repeat our compliments from last year. The engagement call, we spoke at that with 4 employees of ASMI with enormous commitment shown on the themes of ESG, which we're very happy with, and we're convinced that companies that embrace ESG will make sure that there is a contribution to the continuity of their company at the same time. First, something about climate and litigation. You want 100% renewable in 2024 and net-zero for all scopes in 2022 through '35. And you work with suppliers also to get 3 down. Can you give us more of an insight in which that is specifically that you agree with your suppliers in this area? And what targets you set for this? The use of energy or consumption of energy is also something that is lies with your clients because using your machines demands a lot of energy, which is a point of concern for the future. How is ASMI dealing with the energy consumption of the machines, for which the demand grows and the consumption grows and then that becomes a big problem and is part of Scope 3, so how do you deal with this? Have you, for example, terms and conditions in your sales agreement that it can only be done with renewable energy? Is there a winter buying supplied with every single machine? I'm just thinking out loud really. Our second question is about a living wage. Living wage is what is paid to all employees of ASM International, which is not that strange because the nature of the work would lead one to expect this. However, mainly in the supply chain of technology and electronics, a living wage was not paid everywhere around the world. So how does ASM International deal with the guaranteeing of a living wage throughout the supply chain? And the final question I have is about diversity and inclusivity. There's a 20% target for women in the company. And there are many programs in place [ Converge ], [indiscernible] and CONNECT, which are all focused on improving the culture in this organization. And I take it that there is also a point where people can say something, a desk they can go to, if there's harassment, for example, and do such reports arrive because that is also a sign that, that system that you have in place works in this regard.

[Interpreted] Thank you. That was a neat definition of 3 questions. I think I heard 5 or 6. But very good questions, and there's really one that you forgot, the chips that we make with the machines also use energy. And we are making them more economical as well. So we do go beyond Scope 3, I should tell you, and I'm happy to tell you. Floor to our CEO, please.

So I -- Sorry, I have to answer in the English. I think as far as the suppliers, I think maybe to answer your question on what are we doing with our suppliers. So one of the things that we actually did last year was to make sure that all of our suppliers join the [ CDP ] program. And to that, we are hoping that because of the close relationship that we have working with CDP, we will be able to track, for example, what the top key strategic suppliers of ours, which is basically the top 80% of the suppliers, what are they going to update in terms of their efforts towards climate change. And we think that, that is probably the best way for us to kind of monitor and track. And with that, if there's anything that we need to work together with them, then we would have a basis to work from. So we started that last year. In fact, last year, it was the first year where we gave out ESG award to suppliers. That was the last year. So we are trying to -- we have something called the PRISM Award, which is really for a supplier that has excellence in ESG efforts. And lastly, it was the first year that we gave out such an award. And we are trying to really grow that culture and that momentum within our supplier base as well. In terms of what do we do in Scope 3 with the customers, one of the things that you'll observe is that a lot of our customers, they do want to reduce their net-zero emission as well, and they have been putting a lot of activities in place. You will find that there is an increasing amount of use of renewable electricity by some of our customers. Of course, they are not aware they should be or at the level where it's, let's say, that significant yet, but that's a good start, and we are very encouraged by that. And we work very closely with them in terms of being a supplier, also responding to in all the different requests and, let's say, actions that they have as far as ESG is concerned. So we -- with all -- not just the top 3, but all -- most of all our customers. There is annual discussions regarding where -- what are our activities and then they will track us. So that's something that they do to us, just like what we do to our suppliers. On the living wage, I think we have actually cosponsored a living wage, let's say, policy or program with the RBA. And we are actually a co-leading that. I think that's one way of trying to ensure that the labor that is within the semiconductor industry gets paid a wage that is good enough for living and that makes it possible for everybody to make a good living. That's something that we are continuously working on with the RBA. And we hope that going forward, at some point in time, it may be accepted and become part of the code of conduct. Today, it is not, but we are sharing the -- or we are leading -- co-leading the working group to try to make sure that we try to push that as far as we can. In terms of inclusion and diversity, I think you mentioned, Stefanie, some of the programs that we have, converge, which is a really employee resource groups, not just for gender diversity, but for various other purposes as well. We also have the woman -- the WiME initiative for the female population. And of course, we also do a lot of programs trying to make sure that -- the company is aware of the importance of inclusion and diversity. Part of this is to some of the surveys that we do once every 2 years. So we did our first survey in 2020. We did a Pulse Survey in 2021. And this year, we have just kicked off a second survey. One -- it's a cycle of once every 2 years, to gauge sort of response of the employee base as far as their understanding. We try as much as possible to ensure that we create awareness. So last year, we had actually 2 of our female Supervisory Board members speak during women's, I think, it was Women's Day, our International Women's Day. Stefanie was one of them, Monica was the other one. And I think it was very enlightening that we could have Supervisory Board members, female supervisory board members speak at large to the rest of the company. We also have various participants, platforms where we try to, for example, in the area of women in engineering or women in semiconductors, we have the head of our Singapore facility, Yvonne, who has joined that as a speaker. So various activities that we are doing to try to create a sense of awareness and try to be much more involved. I think the last part of your question was whether we have something like a whistleblower complaint in the channel. I do believe we have. We have actually a very, I would call it, sophisticated. It's run by People and the General Counsel. So if there is a complaint, for example, against myself or Paul, we don't see it. They see it, and they will investigate. And eventually, they will give a report actually to the Chairman of the Supervisory Board. So it's very impartial. I don't think we have a lot of those kind of cases because I think that we are quite confident that people are happy working for us. It's a happy environment. But should there be any, and probably, there's a few such complaints, they all go to the General Counsel and the Head of People to be investigated. I hope that answers most of your questions, Stefanie.

And to add to the last part, we are informed at the Supervisory Board about any case, a simple case or a complicated case by the corporate secretary. [Interpreted] And I will say this again, we get this information going back into Dutch. So thank you. In terms of diversity as a Supervisory Board, indeed, we are giving the right example, aren't we? Because 5 nationalities, 50% women, so 50-50. And somebody is saying without a microphone that we couldn't hear and the Chair as well. And not -- this doesn't happen all that often. If you look at the AEX. So I hope everybody follows our good example. And here in front, there is [ Freyka ].

[Interpreted] You brought a lot of staff, machinery. Well, this is an iPad Pro, and I take it that you've put some stuff in that iPad Pro, some of your products. I'm [ Freyka ]. This is a fantastic team, let me say, here behind the desk, side by side, both as to subject involvement and emancipation. It is fantastic. So a huge complement from me. However, communication could be much, much better because you know who is going to say the most important thing here today, that is I because you know why, at one point, I purchased shares, a whole portfolio of them. And I never looked at it again really, but the best performing share is ASM International, which is up some 2,000%. But I never read this in the newspaper, you don't advertise with this. You could raise a lot more money by communicating about your strength. And I would be very happy to help you this. And you're smiling or perhaps laughing. But if I tell you, 2,271% up, no shareholder would tell anybody else that, but I do it publicly and all top investors worldwide are hearing me. There's been the [ Rome ] report, this was made a long time ago, and it's about boundaries or limits to growth. Well, the past 50 years, since that report, we seem not to have done a lot. We seem to be the dirty little man of Europe. But it's beautiful that you are so sustainable together with 25 other big companies in the Netherlands. Nevertheless, we go from crisis to crisis CO2, nitrogen. It's unimaginable. And here, we have the climate crisis and the war. And also they are connected because Russia has put us in a fossil fuel crisis and China will put us in a green crisis. And you are all part of the old boys network. So you could have seen this coming, Russia since 2014 with the annexation of the Crimea that was a clear sign, but let me give you a clear sign. China is monopolizing all green raw materials, so production should go to America, Africa and Europe. And COVID is also a climate crisis, too much meat, too many exotic animals.

[Interpreted] Could we ask you to come to the point or to the question.

[Interpreted] Yes, I'll reach my questions. A question is, how can you communicate better in the future? And in terms of diversity? What my predecessor already said, you see in positions at the top that diversity intimidation plays a role there very often, which is oftentimes invisible. So I want to know how you are doing at the top there? And another question is, you are making big profits, but wouldn't it be great, and Ms. Van der Meer Mohr knows more about this, I'm sure, all IT schools in the Netherlands don't have enough money. She used to be at ASML, and now at ASMI. Wouldn't it be great if she became Chair and then give that education in the Netherlands, an enormous boost with lots of funding also for female students, which will fill the deficit. How will you go about this? But also in a societal sense, you can help because shareholders and stakeholders are very important, all becoming much more so because the [ Floriade ] is now in Almere, but ASMI, I read did not sponsor this. And they have a shortage, a shortfall of EUR 15 million. Can't you give them some money as well because your profits are so high and you can make much more profits in if you fill your responsibility to communicate and to support others. And finally, 2 or 3 years ago, at the headquarters of ASMI were all sorts of little Porsche Cayenne. And I take it that there are electrical cars now BMW, Audi, Porsche, I hope so. And one more thing. In the Netherlands, we have the nuns, right? So if you really want to speak Dutch, learn Dutch, you can learn it as well as Máxima or one of our earlier princess by learning it from the nuns in that institute, where everybody learns languages in an intensive course, Immersion, and then you can talk with everybody else around you in the language of the country. Okay. So why hasn't Mr. Loh gone to the nuns to get educated in Dutch, at least? Well, I'm sure he will be okay, but all the other questions I asked are much more important.

[Interpreted] Okay. Then let me check whether I understood you. I heard something about communication. It was like a television program almost [indiscernible]. But thank you for good lessons. And as to hybrid indeed, part of the members of the Supervisory Board do drive electric. And you must be so sorry at having only 10 shares. Well, you shouldn't be telling anyone that's private information. Then I offer you my sincere apologies.

[Interpreted] But such a great result of growth right? But I don't just do this. I do all sorts of other good things for you that you don't see.

[Interpreted] Well, I meet you at many meetings, so I know of some of these things. But again, let us answer your questions where we can. Of course, as the shareholder.

[Interpreted] I would like to start with our Chair. About communication, we're not visible enough in the country, Benjamin. What about that?

In terms of communication, we have improved very significantly over the last 2 years. And let me give you some examples. We -- since on the last 2 years, we have also accepted to give newspaper interviews. We were on the FD. We were on the [ NRC ]. So we actually try to speak to the newspapers, for example, so that people know a little bit more about ASM International. I agree with you, not a lot is known about ASM International. So we have tried to do that. We are very much more active now if you look at social media, whether it's on YouTube or whether it's on LinkedIn, we publish a lot of our articles as well. And this is all just trying to make sure that people understand and know ASM International a little bit better. For example, recently, we also gave interviews on Bloomberg, CNBC with local newspapers as well. So I think we are doing a lot of that compared to, for example, 2 years ago. And also internally, we are also stepping up our communication. So we have CONNECT, which is a forum where we share news within the company. And we, I think, have done a good step-up from where we were before. We also right now also have a lot of regular interactions with the employees. For example, Paul and myself and also Hichem, we try to do whenever we go and visit an office, all hands that we explain about the strategy, we explain about our sustainability strategy, our overall strategic focus. So I think in terms of communication, we have done a lot. Maybe we need to improve and do even more. But I think compared to where we were, we have improved significantly.

[Interpreted] [ Mr. Freyka ], I also think you should consider that we are very international. You have seen all our sites. So we should be very careful. Where do we have many people in Singapore and the U.S. So this is where we do much more. And in the Netherlands, we are a relatively small organization. But your signal is very clear. We'll take a close look at it. I can tell you, last week, I made a round with the finalists of the Royal [indiscernible] that I'm chair of.

[Interpreted] We have wonderful companies in the Netherlands that nobody knows about. So maybe it's just Dutch modesty there. So I think there's a huge market there for the Dutch industry to become more known. And maybe you could give some consults.

[Interpreted] Well, I can give you an example, but that would be taking it too far, but thank you for your suggestion. Did this answer your question?

[Interpreted] Yes, that question was now answered. My other question was this. So the top of the company missed Russia and now we get China. How are you going to prevent from ending up -- from one crisis to another? And how are we going to make sure that these 2 things do not strengthen each other?

[Interpreted] We now buy all the green stuff from China. And China is increasing all of that. So it's not just a question to ASMI, but you are in a network with TU Delft University, et cetera. So it is very important that we make sure together as a continent as Europe.

[Interpreted] And you, as a company, you must have an influence. Make sure that we do not end up in an even more serious crisis.

[Interpreted] Well, I will include your advice [ Mr. Freyka ]. But predicting the future is very difficult, but rest assured that ASMI has a China strategy, and we are closely monitoring all situations. And of course, we do not manufacture ourselves in China, that is clear, but you have heard from our Chair that we pay close attention to what our sources do, where we source our products, also when it comes to availability and all other elements, but we take very good care. We are very careful, and the world is bigger than the Netherlands, and that applies to ASMI as well.

[Interpreted] Well, in the Netherlands, we have a can-do mentality, right? Some people say that we can't say that anymore because it relates too much to our golden age, which was not all positive, but you have an influence to a certain extent also on what happens in China. And you can nudge them. You can nudge this Chinese. You have that influence and power.

[Interpreted] Yes, yes, we are aware of that. Looking around, I see someone else.

[Interpreted] My name is [ Uding ] on behalf of VEB, association of securities holders. Okay. So last year, for the first time, ASMI had an Investors Day. At the same time with the big brother ASML in Veldhoven. Now ASML said earlier this year, the 2025 goals, we have to adjust them already upward. What about your forward-looking or your outlook? Then that concludes one question. So ALD technology, question 2, in a market then, which is growing very fast. Do you see competitors also intensifying because the growth is so fast, the growth pace is so fast. And then third question, I was wondering whether you could talk about opportunities like small geometries and threats of the wider acceptance of [ ALD ] technology?

[Interpreted] So 3 questions. So one is about 2025 update. So whether we see a reason to adjust that, ALD and the competition. And the last question is EUV that we are not in ourselves, but again, I would like to give the floor to Benjamin.

Sure. On the first question, so I think recently, as you correctly mentioned, ASML announced that they were going to expand capacity. And that kind of set of euphoria within the market. Everybody expected that, okay, things are going to be even better. I think it's still a little bit early to say for sure. But what we can say for sure is that is a very good sign because obviously, ASML is confident that the demand is going to grow. That's why they are trying to increase their capacity. Now that, coupled with the fact that if you look at our 3 main customers, they have all made multiyear bets of up to 2025, 2026, gives us a lot of confidence that the market, in fact, is seeing very strong demand and will grow. But at this stage, we stick to our midterm targets. And of course, we review that regularly. And if we feel that we should change maybe on the yearly or every 18 months, we, of course, would change that and inform the market. But there are actually a good news in what is happening with the announcement from ASML. I think ALD technology is an area where ASM has Excel and it's one of our core strengths. And of course, you are correct that being the fastest-growing part of the market, it is probably attracting competition. And competition is, in fact, intensifying. So maybe some figures. If you look at 2020, the market was about -- for ALD, single-wafer ALD was about USD 1.5 billion. We expect that, that is going to grow to between USD 3.1 billion to USD 3.7 billion by 2025. So effectively a doubling of the market more than doubling of the market. And some analysts have even said that we are a little bit conservative, maybe yes, maybe no, but that's our view today. So we have such a high growth, growing at 16% to 20% CAGR for the next couple of years, of course, the competition is going to be attracted. But we are very confident that we will continue to maintain our leading position for a couple of reasons. One, we have been in this ALD equipment space, longer than anybody else. In fact, my predecessors had the foresight to already start investing in ALD more than 2 decades ago. So we have the biggest knowledge base. We have the largest installed base, and we have also built up the biggest, let's say, base of materials and chemistries, which are the most important aspects of ALD. So we are very confident that even with the intensifying competition, we will continue to be the leaders because it's just not easy to replicate what we have done over the last 2 decades in a couple of years. The question on smaller geometry is actually, I'm not very clear. Are you talking about EUV?

[indiscernible]

Okay. Okay. I think in general, EUV for us is net-net positive because EUV might reduce, for example, the number of patterning steps, but EUV creates the need to have additional ALD layers that supports the EUV. And that actually our experience with logic or foundry customer from 7-nanometer to 5-nanometer, and now going to 3, it's actually a net positive for us. So it increases the usage of ALD one. Two, when you look at EUV, it's not able to replace all the patterning steps completely. So even with EUV, there are steps that still require multiple patterning. And it's generally going to just increase the number of ALD steps for us, which we are actually very positive about.

Where you've regained, I think, market share from Lam Research, and you've had a period where you were losing market share. Is that something that you're -- in terms of memory growing faster, maybe over the next couple of years? Or how do you see that in terms of the competition and your own technology. Do you think you're now ahead in terms of technology, so you're able to take market share also in memory?

I think we are actually very positive as well, as far as memory is concerned. So we started about 2, 3 years ago, working with all the memory customers on the advanced ALD applications that they will need at their next nodes. And we see some of them now starting to be adopted. One of them is the high-K metal gate, the hafnium oxide that is the first one that has been adopted by the majority of the memory manufacturers. But we do have a pipeline of other applications. One of them we shared during our first quarter earnings call with ALD gap fill that is in good traction and probably will be adopted for high-volume manufacturing within the next, I would say, 12 to 18 months. So we look at the end of 2022 and 2023 as the time horizon where a lot of the work that we have been doing over the last couple of years, they get moved into high-volume manufacturing. So our share will start to increase from there.

[Interpreted] Right. Looking around the room, I do not see any other questions, which means that I will now look at whether we have questions from the chat. No questions from the chat. So that is nice. And now that we don't have any further questions, we can move on to the next item on the agenda. But before that, I will state something. With the piece of paper that I was just given, I can tell you that the total number of issued shares on the record date amounted to 49,297,394. And on that date, there were 717,295 shares in treasury and therefore, 84,580,099 shares could be voted on. And for this meeting, however, we have registered a number of shares of 36,083,548 shares. And that number of registered shares is 74.28% of all of our shares, which brings us to agenda item 3. This is the first voting item. And in regards the remuneration report. So the implementation and execution of our policy for remuneration. And -- you can read about this in the annual report, of course, Pages 111 through 116. That is what you can find under the -- in the annual report 2021, that information on the implementation of the remuneration policy. And now -- we will have a short introduction of this topic by my colleague Didier Lamouche. He is the Chair of that remuneration committee, and so he would like to give us an explication.

Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, I will take you initially through the remuneration report 2021. And then in a second step through the adjusted remuneration policy for the Management Board and for the Supervisory Board. As Mr. Chairman already indicated, the remuneration report is included in its entirety into '21 annual report, Page 111 to Page 116. This report fully complies with the Dutch Civil Code and the principle as set out in the Dutch Corporate Governance Court. In accordance with the Dutch Civil Court, as said by the Chairman, we ask you the General Meeting of shareholders to cast an advisory vote on the remuneration report 2021. On the first step, I would like to remind you that the remuneration policy on which the remuneration report 2021 is based was adopted by the General Meeting of Shareholders on May 18, 2020. In terms of base salary, in 2021, the base salary for our CEO, Mr. Benjamin Loh has been increased by 3%, in line with the market movements in the Netherlands this year as well as in line with the average increase for ASM employees in the Netherlands. As far as the CFO, Mr. Verhagen is concerned, he has started his assignments in June 1, 2021. and as such, was not included in the base salary adjustment review process. Let's review now in more detail the variable remuneration elements of the pay mix, called the short-term cash incentive, STI, measuring the results over the last years, and the long-term share incentive delivered in performance share called the LTI. As far as the STI is concerned, so the short-term cash incentive, as you know, it is based both on financial targets with a weight of 75% of the nominal and 25% on nonfinancial target, namely based on ESG related, on one hand and strategy-related KPIs. All those targets are set annually by the Supervisory Board. The maximum attainable level for the CEO is 150% of his base salary and for the CFO of 125% of his base salary. Obviously, given the report on the results that Benjamin gave to you, it will not be a surprise given the strong performance that we have recorded in 2021 for ASM that both management board members have shown an overachievement on the predefined STI targets, which -- those achievements have been, as you can see in the remuneration report, of 138% of base salary for the CEO and 114% for the CFO. Let's turn now to the LTI, the long-term share incentive performance share based component of the remuneration. As you know, again, this is a multiyear, 3 years actually, variable payments based on performance shares that become unconditional after a performance period measurement of 3 years and which also subject post those 3 years to a 2-year holding period post vesting. The unconditional award is a result of target on revenue growth compared to the market as measured on the 3 years period and average EBIT versus a preset objective set by the Supervisory Board. As Mr. Loh started in May 2020 and Mr. Verhagen in June 2021, there is obviously no vesting performance share in 2021, as the performance period is, as I said before, 3 years. Let's go now to an indicator, which we may publish, which is the CEO pay ratio and which is also included in the report, the so-called CEO pay ratio. As you know, the ratio of the CEO remuneration and the average remuneration of all other employees in the company is calculated by dividing actually the CEO remuneration by the average remuneration of all employees in the company. The pay ratio this year is relatively stable compared to the former year and also compared to last year, moving from a number of 27 in '20 to 29 over '21. Next item, the retirement of Mr. van Bommel as CFO as of May 18, 2021. If you remember, back in October '20, the company has informed all stakeholders about the retirement of the former CFO, Mr. van Bommel at an age of almost 65 years. As this is an ordinary retirement, no severance payment was made to Mr. van Bommel and the Supervisory Board did not grant a new LTI award in 2021 either. In line with ASM regular retirement arrangements, which also apply -- to apply to all employees of ASM, all outstanding conditional performance share that we are granted to Mr. van Bommel in 2019 and 2020 vested at ground level on his retirement date, which, in fact, represent a total respectively, for '19 and '20 of 7,343 shares and 5,559 shares. Let's now move to the remuneration policy for the Management Board for 2022 onwards. As you probably know, the actual remuneration policy was adopted by the AGM, the General Meeting of Shareholders on May 18, 2020. After recommendation of the Nomination Selection and Remuneration Committee, which I have the pleasure to chair, it is proposed to adopt a new remuneration policy for the Management Board. Mainly in view of the proposed change to the composition of the Management Board by appointing Mr. Hichem M’Saad, who is present here. And if you elect to do so, will present himself later on. It is intended that in line with the Dutch Corporate Governance Code, the remuneration policy for the Management Board will be then applicable for the next 4 years. Let me explain in a few words the changes. First, why? The responsibilities of Mr. M’Saad as a U.S.-based management board member for ASM will include accountability for ASM technical product portfolio, platform configuration, future technologies and innovation. And he will bear -- he would bear the title of Chief Technology Officer, CTO. As Mr. M’Saad is already based in the U.S. since we start with ASM and even before, in 2015, he will remain -- and given the importance of this market for us, it's even more important, he will remain based in the U.S. And given this fact, the Supervisory Board has deemed necessary if not absolutely necessary to consider U.S. labor market practices and U.S. benchmarks in setting the overall remuneration of Mr. M’Saad. Hence, a rigorous benchmark was performed by an outside renowned consulting Price and Waterhouse, based again, as I said, our U.S. labor market practices and benchmark data out of the U.S. market. The major adjustment is dealing actually with the LTI, the long-term incentive portion of the compensation, which for those who knows well, those markets shouldn't be a surprise given the differences we see on this pay elements between the European market and the U.S. market. Next to his base pay. Mr. M’Saad will receive and target 80% of base salary, short-term cash incentive and target 450% of base salary, long-term incentive performance share based and again, based on performance. And this performance will be measured against 2 preset predetermined financial indicators. The performance share, as I said before, will become unconditional after a period of 3 years after which the performance is measured and through the award date. And of course, as I said before, in order to show commitment to ASM and align such commitment with the shareholder interest, the members of the management board, including then Mr. M’Saad are required to hold the vested performance share for 2 additional years after the vesting date. In addition and to go quickly, just to highlight the key differences of new proposal for the remuneration policy, we are proposing 3 slight adjustments. First, the disclosure in the remuneration report, we were often -- very often requested to further increase the transparency and the disclosure of our remuneration measurement elements. So the performance indicator, which are used and their relative waiting will be disclosed in the remuneration report next year. And actually, the actual short-term incentive payout following the attainment of each of the -- financial performance criteria will be annually disclosed in the remuneration report. That's the first point. Second point, we also adjusted for feature of payout for the STI or LTI element or we clarified a few elements of those. The remuneration policy as such is then clarifying those situations in which some management Board members could, in any case, the profit payout of their STI or LTI, if they are hired from outside, or if not actively providing services on the last day of the performance -- I'm sorry, I'm confused here. I repeat. In case -- let me repeat, the remuneration policy clarifies some situation in which management Board members will, in case, the fort payout of the STI or LTI, if they are not actively providing services on the last day of their performance year or if they are not actively providing services on the date of vesting. This is a clarification that we are bringing to the reports. And now last point, but not least, in case of new appointments, the new remuneration policy also clarifies specific provision for the new appointment, especially what we call replacement awards. Last item, Mr. Chairman, that I would like to mention the remuneration policy as it concerns the Supervisory Board for 2022 and onwards. The actual remuneration policy of the Supervisory Board, as you remember, was adopted by the AGM on May 18, 2020. The last increase actually of the remuneration of the Supervisory Board members was 4 years ago back in 2018, and was at that time, approved at the AGM, May 20, 2018. The proposed adjustments in the remuneration level of the Supervisory Board and the remuneration policy are directly related to the growth of the company since 4 years now to the increased complexity of ASM, the expansion of the activity also of the Supervisory Board and are supported by a benchmark again executed by an outside firm consulting firm in this case, PwC. This completes my report to the AGM, Mr. Chairman.

Okay. Didier, thanks a lot. [Interpreted] Well, my colleague has a quick flight for Paris. So he was doing 3 and 8 at the same time, I think, explanations of items on the agenda 3 and 8, to be fast, I'm sure. But now we must first discuss item on the agenda #3. And that was to do with that remuneration report. Would anybody like to ask a question. And I see the stockholders' association of the Netherlands representative. Mr. Frecker.

[Interpreted] On behalf of the VEB, one brief statement and 2 very brief questions for you. The remuneration report does not give enough insight in the targets and performance achieved in the past year, both STI and LTI related. For STI, for example, we do not see what threshold and max levels of any individual performance criteria. And in terms reference, I'll refer to ASML, who gives us a full table of these numbers. So our question is, will you present a full table of these figures as other companies also do from next year? And about nonfinancial criteria. My question 2. Which of those criteria were used this year, specifically also in terms of ESG?

[Interpreted] Okay. You're asking me about nonfinancial targets of last year, and I'll give the floor back to Didier and he will ask us to be even more transparent like our small colleague, ASML, next year. So back to Didier for this.

Yes. Thank you for your question. As you very well know, this is a general request for many shareholders and also proxy organization across Europe and across U.S. to be more transparent. So that's exactly what we want to do. At the same time, we need also to protect the interest of the company and the shareholder of the company. And you know that most of our financial targets are very, very competitive, sensitive, very, very because disclosing the target comes back to declare to your competition, what you're aiming at. So this is why this is not to disclose. This is why we want to protect also the company. And I think this is -- we think this is a key element. Having said that, we also take the commitment to further increase the level of transparency. And next year, we will disclose the strategic goals, which are a bit less sensitive in the short term. To answer your question, this year, the goals were measured on ESG strategy achievement for the year, point number one. And point number two, on the strategy achievement for this year, both equally weighted. That's how we assess the performance of the manager this year.

[Interpreted] Maybe my question was not that specific. But on ESG, what was measured on ESG? And on the strategy, what was measured on strategy? Is that, for example, market share? Or what are we talking about in terms of nonfinancial?

That I cannot disclose you. We define -- the management defined strategy that the Board approved. And this strategy is, of course, a multiyear strategy with different milestones era. We measure basically the achievement of the milestone as compared to the commitment, the year before of the management. Same with ESG. As we are in the, I would say, in the phase where we need to define and then set the strategy and then set a precise target, we were in the period -- still last year of defining the key milestone of the strategy. So we measure the management and did they achieve those milestones that will lead going forward to key KPIs.

[Interpreted] Thank you for your questions on transparency. I will definitely also forwarded it to my successor. Anyway, we understand because it's quite a discussion. You want to have as much transparency as you can, but you also do not want to inform the competition. And that is, of course, somewhere in between lines of the golden route that makes everybody happy. And this is what you see everywhere. But we promised you that we will take a careful look at it again. Right, looking at whether there are any other questions, Mr. Frecker.

I am a person that really likes visual things stimuli. So I'd like to see an overview when you present -- because now I have to sort of plow through 10 pages of the annual report to look at remuneration policy, and that doesn't make it informative. And I think if I'm not mistaken, Mr. Loh earns EUR 3 million, is that correct? Because I can't do the math. And my question is, does he find this a good salary on an international level. Is that a reason for him to stay? Or are there headhunters who say, "Hey, that Benjamin Loh, we need to have him because it's very important to keep everything that's on the other side of the table, it's a great team. And I also have this question, whether Supervisory Board would accept an hourly wage of EUR 200 to EUR 250. That seems fair to me, especially during COVID, think day and night, you worked on ASMI. So re-numeration, -- is it realistic then? So basically, you're getting at that it should be higher. Yes, I should think so, because penny-wise is pound foolish. I was at ING International and ING Barings took over for GBP 1, and it cost us billion. So you have to feel happy with the remuneration that you get. And -- now we know that ING Director, he had EUR 2 million, and now we moved to a Swiss bank, and now we earned EUR 220 million, and that is his market value. Well, benchmarking, I just sell -- I'm just selling -- I'm just saying benchmarking is important. VEB also represents me, by the way, but again, looking at all those tiny pennies in the Netherlands, we accept that, but we have to look at the international stage, and you will have to be able to recruit people and new operator on international playing field. So I am the only shareholder that is now stating that we should have a different approach towards remuneration, I think, because it -- it's really nice that you have like, let's say, modest salaries like our prime minister, but you have to retain your stuff. But what is your question? Okay. So you say remuneration for the management team, is it correct? Yes, I really want to know whether everybody is happy with what they get.

[Interpreted] Well, I'm going to answer this question ourselves. Well, we managed to attract a high-level new CEO, new CFO, so we did that because we looked at what they earned before. You know what we can do, what is acceptable -- and this is how we always structured our policy. And within that policy, we succeeded to attract great people, and they stay on board and they are happy. I was told. They are happy. So I am going to assume that whatever they're receiving is fitting.

[Interpreted] Well, then I have 1 more question. The workload for the Supervisory Board, especially yes. So we will get to the remuneration for the Supervisory Board.

[Interpreted] It's a separate item. Yes. Yes, yes, yes. You think it's too little as well or Well, no, but Mr. Lan much had to go to Paris apparently, so he did that 1 go, but we'll get back to that right. Yes. All right. Okay. Let's see whether we have any question on the remuneration report.

Helping me to negotiate with Benjamin that he's not asking too much next year because you bring in a lot of arguments, so not too much.

[Interpreted] Right, no further questions about the remuneration report, then -- looking at -- no questions on the chat either. We will move on and I inform you that court in accordance with the Civil Court, the [ General ] shareholder can cast an advisory vote with regard to the remuneration report 2021. So it's now time to open the first voting block. So in the room, you can vote using your virtual voting box or your mobile application. And shareholders who are participate virtually can now vote using their aforementioned application. And then I will show the voting results at the end of the first voting block, which is after Item 8 on the agenda. And we actually covered part of that, as I said already. So I will give you the opportunity now to cast your vote because you might not remember what you're voting for. So let's do it now for this item so that you don't forget. So item 3, let's cast the advisory vote. [Voting]

I -- let's see -- okay, I will move on with item 4, which is the adoption of the annual accounts 2021. So the annual accounts 2021, have been audited and approved by the external auditor, which is KPMG. And I would now like to give Mr. Frederik Croiset van Uchelen of KPMG, the opportunity to explain the audit and his unqualified opinion. And I understand Mr. Frecker, he did bring his own presentation to make things very transparent and clear.

[Interpreted] Yes, I did bring slides. Good afternoon. My name is Frederik Croiset van Uchelen. I'm the external auditor for the audit of the annual accounts of ASMI. This is my second year as the responsible lead accountant and KPMG has now been involved in the audit for 7 years as an external auditor. So this presentation that you see here follows the structure of our opinion that you can find on Page 173 until 279 of the annual report. Right. Here we go. So what did we audit? First of all, we audited the consolidated and single financial statements. And also looking at the management report and all the other information was audited, and we concluded that the report is consistent with the annual accounts and the audit resulted in an unqualified opinion. Furthermore, we also provided a nonqualified opinion with a limited assurance when it comes to the nonfinancial indicators as included on Page 181 to 183 of the annual report. The audit approach then for our audit approach, a number of elements are important amongst which are risk assessment and of course, looking at materiality and setting that. As part of our audit, we made a risk assessment of all possible fields in which a risk of a substantive mistake or materiality mistake, whether caused by a fraud or a mistake where it is highest in our unqualified opinion, we included further details as to how we assess the specific risks among which the risk to fraud and compliance with laws and legislations. For the audit of the annual accounts, we set materiality at a 4.2% of result before income taxes, which was EUR 25 million. The most important focal points of our audit. So basically, the key audit matters were in the unqualified opinion as well and are in line with last year. First of all, we identified one matter, which related to the financial impact and complexity, specifically related to revenue, so cut off risk on revenue. To clarify that risk -- this risk is the supposed fraud risk that the management will not give full accountability over the entire revenue. The second key audit matter related to the capitalization of development costs, again, because of financial or possible financial impact because it's always an assessment and it's very complex, specifically in relation to criteria to be able to affect development costs. Then looking at the scope, because of how the financial organization is set up and a service center in Singapore, we are able to plan our audit and execute it, which results in the fact that we were able to assess and audit 95% of total assets and 94% of revenue, which means that we conducted central audit activities for most important operations in Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, Singapore and the U.S. Next to that, we used a local KPMG accounts to help us with Singapore and Japan a little bit further. We also use, like previous non-KPMG accountants for audit of ASMPT part of our audit activities when it comes to investments with associates. Activities of local accountants then in Japan and Singapore, were assessed in a virtual manner by us, and I'll get back to that. When it comes to local accountants, so also the non-KPMG ones, all activities for purpose of the consolidated annual accounts were executed according to our instructions and under our provision. Then finally, the relevant topics. Just like last year related to COVID, we were not able to visit all sites physically, so we had virtual meetings with the teams in Singapore, Japan and Hong Kong. And we have also had several meetings and calls during the audit process. And at the end, and during the process, we looked into the case files and mailed all the files virtually for Japan and Hong Kong. Then looking at risk of fraud and noncompliance with laws and regulations, we specifically, just like last year, conducted activities relation -- related to export controls and trade relations, that is also explained in our unqualified opinion. Then in relation to climate-related risk, we included the risks in our risk analysis. And also, we looked at the analysis of the management, and we were not able to identify any material risks for our audit. That concludes my presentation. I would like to leave it at that, and I'd like to give the floor back to the Chair. Thank you for your attention and confidence in us.

[Interpreted] Frederik, Thank you. And then I would like to offer you the possibility in the room and also people online. So this is the adoption of the annual accounts 2021. You have been able to hear the presentation of -- the highlights as well in our -- the precision of our CEO, but also you've been able to read everything in the annual report. Looking at whether we have any questions? So again, it's the adoption of the annual accounts 2021. Mr. Frecker. But I would really like to ask you to really ask a question, Mr. Frecker.

[Interpreted] Of course, Mr. Pernis. My question is this. What about cybercrime? How well is the security of ASMI and compared to the competition? Because I often ask these questions and then I get an answer that many things are being done. But with -- they said that they had over 1 million attacks. That's important information. It's like with the COVID virus. And when there is a lockdown, it means that Europe isn't locked down, and then the world is it locked down. So I would like to know. And if you look at the market value, of ASMI, it doubled. And all of a sudden, I see that their over KPN and ABN AMRO, that's a great compliment. I didn't even know that. Why are we not communicating that because isn't it great that you're in the top 25 is almost world news? Of course, at the very top, it's ASML. It used to be at Unilever and Shell, but there are miracles happening and the Dutch people need to know. So 2 questions. First of all, I would like to see reporting on market capitalization because it confirms how well ASMI is doing. And the other question was cybercrime. And my last thing is this. I understand that all of a sudden, there are many manufacturers that are manufacturing chips and that pretty soon, the price will decrease because there will be a huge offer. And what is the impact on ASMI?

[Interpreted] Okay. Trying to structure those questions. Cybercrime, we -- I actually wanted to answer that we do a lot, but you already know that I would like to give then our -- the floor to our Chair or our CFO, who is a specialist in cybercrime, again, your communication point, yes, market capitalization and market value, we depend on you as a shareholder. The better the share price is, the bigger the market value is so slightly decreased. So anyway, Cybercrime. Benjamin, would you like to go first or Paul? Okay.

[Interpreted] Yes. Thank you for your question. Of course, cybercrime and protection against is one of our in our top 5 of important issues. And it's also included in the risk assessment of our Supervisory Board meeting. So it's a topic that we discuss. We do a lot. It's maybe not sufficient. In principle, we have 4, 5 pillars. We first identify the risks first. So you need -- first, you need a risk assessment of the cyber risks then we take measures to protect ourselves, just like you have 3 locks on your door to protect yourself against burglars. You know, we also have several locks on our doors. Of course, we have antivirus programs and other software and we have our own access monitoring and all the standard stuff that you should expect from our company, we monitor 24x7, whether somebody is in our home, knocking on the door, and we, of course, try to detain such hackers and kick them out. And we have recovery and backup procedures that we regularly test worldwide to be sure that if anything happens, anywhere in the world that we are up and running and that is a continuous loop. Cyber security is also developing rapidly and we are not standing still either and we try to stay ahead of the game. So wherever we believe we have identified risks, we try to deal with those risks.

[Interpreted] And what about risks down the chain? Because, for example, the tax authorities have a fossil system. It doesn't seem that hard to hack that. So if no income tax is received, then it will hurt ASMI too. So government IT is not that great. Can you manage that?

[Interpreted] Well, I don't know whether I understand your question. What is your question?

[Interpreted] Well, you can have your house in order, but the government in the Netherlands.

[Interpreted] Yes. But that -- I think you should go to another meeting for that.

[Interpreted] No, I'm at the right meeting because if the tax authorities fall, then ASMI will also feel that effect.

[Interpreted] Well, isn't it great that we don't have to pay corporate tax anymore than, but no, no, just on a more serious note. Please ask questions that we could actually -- it costs a lot. Well, I can tell you this. Our suppliers might have access to our systems. So together with our suppliers, we do that security together with customers as well. We have joint efforts when it comes to that. So we talk to several groups, internal, external, so everyone who has direct access to our systems, they're all part of the scope of our total cyber security policy and activities.

[Interpreted] Thank you. Right. Looking at whether anybody else has a question, if not -- about the annual account. Let's go and take that vote. We vote on the annual accounts and you and people in the room here can use the Lumi application to do this. And let me say again, that the voting results of the first block of voting will be shown after item on the agenda #8. So this is your moment to vote about the annual accounts. [Voting]

[Interpreted] And assuming that you have done this by now, we'll move on to agenda item 5, which is always a wonderful one, I think, for shareholders. It is about the adoption of the dividend proposal. And a proposal is made of a dividend to be paid of EUR 2.5 per each ordinary share. This is an increase of 25% compared to the dividend paid for 2020, and I'm looking around the room to see whether there are any questions about this. The further details, I'm sure you've been able to read in the explanatory notes to the agenda. I don't see any questions coming in via the chat either. So this is another moment in which you may chat. It's -- the terminals you use, people at home use, you use the Lumi application. This is your moment to vote. [Voting]

[Interpreted] And once we have done this, let us move to agenda Item 6, which is an exciting one for all our directors since it regards the discharge of the members of the Management Board. And in accordance with the Article 30.4 of the Articles of Association of the company, it is proposed to the General Meeting of Shareholders that you discharge the members of the Management Board from liability in relation to the exercise of their duties in the financial year 2021, and I'm looking around to see whether there are any questions about this. But I see none and I see none in the chat either. So let's vote immediately. This is your moment to do this. You know how to do it by now. This is your opportunity. [Voting]

[Interpreted] And then without further ado, let us move to Item 7, which regards the discharge of the members of the Supervisory Board who are becoming a little nervous in turn because in accordance with article 30.4 of the Articles of Association, it is proposed to the general meeting of shareholders to discharge the members of the Supervisory Board from liability in relation to the exercise of their duties in the financial year 2021. And again, I will give you an opportunity to ask a question. I see no hands up, and also from the chat, there seem to be no questions. So let us vote about this as well, for which I give you the opportunity now. [Voting]

[Interpreted] And once this has been done as well, I move to Item #8. And this is also the last item of this first voting block. I'm sure you remember what I indicated. And this regards the approval of the new remuneration policy. And Mr. Lamouche has already given you a longish explanation in the earlier agenda item. I'm sure you realized that this had to do with our remuneration policy for the coming years. And it's a important item on the agenda, this, because should it not be adopted, then there will be no vote possible on agenda Item 9, and Mr. M'Saad cannot then join the Management Board. It's just so you know. And I would also like to inform you that on 1 April, the draft remuneration policy -- the Management Board -- was published on the ASM website with the notice convening this meeting. That is a formality of course, but I must tell you this. And there is an overview of the changes in this draft compared to the policy of 2020. That was also posted on the website. So there are no more explanations about it, but might anyone want to take the floor perhaps? And I see somebody rise of the Netherlands Stockholders' Association.

[Interpreted] I voted long, but I will vote in favor. But I have to say, if you look at 450% of target level and 150% for the maximum potential added to that. That is fairly aggressive in the Dutch context of ALD, Philips, ASML, if you look at them. So for the future, I thought I would tell you this.

[Interpreted] Thank you for your comment, and thank you for your positive vote. And it is true for an international company such as ours, it is tricky in the various different countries where we work with very different salaries but also very different systems. And so we took a long and close and careful look at all of this. And -- in reality, indeed, this did demand a sacrifice from those concerns. So in that sense, we really try to balance the various interests. And I come from a big international company. And I know about such difference close up. And you can't really compare to other salary packages because the living circumstances, et cetera, are different in different countries. But thank you for that comment and your positive vote. I see no more questions. And so let us vote. Again, we'll give you another 30 seconds. [Voting]

And note, this is the end of the first voting block. So if you've not voted yet on any of the other points in this block, then you can do this now. And let me repeat that the votes that you will see include the votes cast by proxy, the votes cast in the room today and also the votes cast today by our virtual participants. And technology have asked me to give them a minute because they have to collect those various voting results from all the various systems. And so we're waiting, but as soon as we have voting results on the screen, I will read them out to you. There are many screens. I'm trying to watch all of them at the same time to see -- and I see feverish work going on behind the table in the back of the room. Okay. Now let me read this to you. item on the Agenda 3 that was the remuneration report, of course. We see that the positive votes were 29,656,551, which is 83.77%. 5,743,900 votes against, which is 16.23% and we have 681,915 abstentions. And I can't quite read the percentage on my screen. The screen is -- the slide is bigger than the screen, but not the percentage of abstentions. But for those of you who can calculate, 0% abstentions. So that is motion carried. You have adopted the remuneration report, and then we'll go to the annual accounts. That is Item 4, 35,988,284 votes in favor, 99.92%; 29,581 against, which is 0.08% and 64,801 (sic) [ 64,601 ] abstentions, which is 0%. Which moves us to Item on the agenda #5 regarding the adoption of the dividend proposal. And here, we have 35,898,374 votes in favor, which is 99.5% with 179,730 votes against, which is 0.5% and 4,362 abstentions, which I'm sure moves us to the next 3 voting items on the screen. And here, we have them. #6, regards the charge of the members of the Management Board. In favor, 35,187,714 votes, that is 98.56%. Votes against were 513,175, which is 1.44% and 381,577 abstentions. Item 7 regarding the discharge of the members of the Supervisory Board. We received 35,197,763 votes in favor, which is 98.59%. And with this, they have taken over first place from the Management Board. So it's against 503,276, which is 1.41% and 381,427 abstentions. And then finally, the remuneration policy for the Management Board, and we received 34,261,491 votes in favor, which is 95.51%; 1,611,725 votes against, which is 4.49%, and 209,250 abstentions. And with this, we can conclude that all items have been adopted, which brings us to item on the agenda #9. And I already said that this more or less hinged on your adoption of Item 8. And so we're very happy to be able to reach Agenda Item 9, and this is about the composition of the Management Board. And let me, at the same time, then open this second block of votes. And this is such an important item for us that it is the only item in this second block. In accordance with Article 81 of the Articles of Association, the Advisory Board proposes to appoint Mr. Hichem M'Saad for a period expiring at the close of the Annual General Meeting in 2026. And after his appointment, the Supervisory Board will make that appointment. He will be Chief Technology Officer. And he's been working at ASM for the past 15 years and has played an essential part in development of ASM and many of the products of ASM. And we foresee that in the role of CTO, he will make a significant contribution to the further growth of ASM. And we've asked Hichem, who is present here today, to introduce himself very briefly to you and naturally also this will be in English in view of his nationality. He's American.

Thank you very much, Martin and Supervisory Board, for my nomination to the Management Board. I'm really very pleased to be nominated to the Management Board. I've been with ASM since 2015 right now. But I started my career 28 years ago in 1994 with Applied Materials as a Process Development Engineer in HDP CVD, so I've been within this industry for many years right now. And after a year spent in Silicon Valley, I actually moved to Europe. So I spent 2 years in Grenoble, France. So I have my European experience. And in Grenoble -- and I worked with [ STCO ] with France Telecom at that point in time, and also CEA-Leti or [Foreign Language], and I was working on developing new processes in dielectric CVD. After 2 years in Grenoble with lots of skiing in Echirolles and so on, I moved back to Santa Clara, California and I was actually with Applied Material too, and I was actually responsible for developing the PECVD products. So within my years within Applied, I was able to develop quite a few products, namely Black Diamond family of low-k films, which are Black Diamond I, Black Diamond II. I developed the advanced patterning films and those are the films that we use for patterning. So for double patterning and quad patterning, so the amorphous carbon family of films. And also worked on developing [ stressed or nitride ] film. And also was responsible for developing a new product called the Producer GT, which is the PECVD workhorse, and also developing the UV treatment. I spent -- I was with Applied for a few years, I was the GM VP, Corporate VP and also Head of 2 business units, which is the dielectric CVD and CMP. In 2008, I decided I needed to do something different. What I really like to do is -- maybe if you don't know -- is that I really like solar energy and sustainability is very big for me. And 2008, that's where solar is becoming more exciting. When I finished my PhD in 1994, I actually wanted to work in solar energy. But at that time, the price of oil was like $0.25 a gallon in the U.S. So all the solar companies actually closing. But 2008, solar is coming back up, so I decided I want to do that. So I had my own company, start-up, it was very successful in solar energy. Spent about 6 years. Was fun. It was very good. It was very challenged, to be honest with you, being -- doing your own startup, not very easy, but it was fun. But I really missed the semiconductor equipment industry. The semiconductor equipment industry is a great industry. It's very dynamic. I missed making products. I love making products. So I had to make a decision, okay, which company to come back to. And my choice was very easy for me to make. First was really coming -- working with ASM. The reason why I joined ASM is because this company is all about innovation. It's really a very innovative company. It has lots of respect in the industry. It was at Applied Materials, and we always respect ASM. I thought that I can bring value to ASM because I was able to commercialize products. I think if you can team the innovation from ASM with the commercialization expertise that I can bring, I think ASM can go to bigger -- becomes a bigger company. And that's really what I've done in the past few years. I joined ASM. I was very happy with ASM. The innovation that this company has is amazing. The company is very unique. It's not an easy company to be honest with you, because it's all over the world. I mean if you talk about globalization, this is the only truly global semiconductor equipment industry company. We are global because we have many centers of excellence. Centers of excellence in Phoenix, Arizona for thermal processes, center of excellence in Japan and Korea for plasma products. And the center of excellence in Almere for the furnace products. But also we have a center of excellence in precursor technology in Helsinki in Finland. So the company is very unique. It's a very global company. It has many strengths all over the world, and it makes it a very strong [ company ] if we can leverage that. Was very happy to be part of the company. And the past few years, I was really excited to be with ASM. We developed many exciting products in Epi, we're back into business right now. As you guys know, that one of the reason ASM was in Phoenix because of Epi Motorola. So we really have the Epi DNA. And now we're growing a lot in Epi, and we deserve to grow and it's very exciting for me to be part of this growth. We have developed many new products, the Intrepid ES, the pre-clean Previum, pre-clean technology. So we have 3 different reactors to pre-clean the wafer. We also have developed the atmospheric Epi, we call it the Intrepid ESA. And for all these products, the sky is the limit for us. And the innovation really makes us successful. To compete against a big company, the only way you can compete is by technology. And we have done -- and we have great innovation, great technology, and this is the way we're getting our Epi into the market, and we're gaining market share. The other thing that I was really excited about within ASM is really thermal ALD. We developed a new thermal ALD platform synergies for ALD and done very well. In 2019, I was able to add a responsibility to work on the plasma products, which is the PLD and PECVD. We've done very well. We're gaining market. And it has been great for me the past few years. I love ASM and I've been -- and I see the sky is the limit. I see that we are going to grow even further. I am very optimistic about the future. Thank you very much for your time.

[Interpreted] Thank you, Hichem. However, it all depends on you because you would have to approve his ascending to the Board of Management. Any questions? Well, first of all, Mr. [ Frager? ]

[Interpreted] Well, an unexpected question, perhaps. What is so beautiful? I had a look at it, right? It is working hard during these meetings. He has over 200 patents and he's an enthusiastic narrator. And how many of these patents are not on the shelf but are actually being used, I wonder? Because Philips has 10,000 patents on the shelf, but it's not using them. The idea is for them to be used. And he has most of all the members of the Board of Management, most patents. So that is a great thing. And another question is I looked at the CV of Benjamin Loh, which -- who has a huge CV in the [ Middle East, ] it is fantastic and how usable is that for the green issue that I mentioned to be actually involved in. It's [ Foort ], again, the nun's monastery is there, and it would be great if Benjamin Loh were to go to [ Foort ] and do an immersion course of Dutch with the nuns. And that is a very green environment, and there's plenty of space.

[Interpreted] Well, let's just limit ourselves to your question about the patent. Hichem, did you want to answer this? Did you get the question?

[Interpreted] Sir? You have lots of questions -- patents. Can we use them? 200 patents, how many are on the shelf and remaining there, but how many are really active, sir?

So 80% of those patents are active. Every device you have, electronic devices you have, has those patents in those devices.

Okay. Yes. Wonderful because you have to have an in-depth knowledge as well as excellent communication skills. That's great. Thank you. Yes. And you are very -- your impact is enormous because 80% of the patents is used. And if we look, most of them, 80% is not used. So that's not too bad. [Interpreted] See whether that doesn't give us a 100% score of the vote. I've seen no further hands. So let us take that vote. This is an entire block, but it only comprises this item #9. Let's see whether you allow that we enter Hichem, Mr. M'Saad, in our Board of Management. The vote is open. [Voting]

[Interpreted] And here we are waiting for the results. It's on its way from all sorts of locations across the world where people are sitting and from this room. We have received 35,850,749 votes in favor, which is 99.65%. Against 127,378, which is 0.35% and 102,969 abstentions. My personal congratulations, Hichem, because you're joining us in our Board of Management. Congratulations. Right. Not Supervisory Board. Apparently, I said Supervisory Board. You'll have to wait for that. First, he will be on the Management Board obviously. So correcting that mistake. Let's move on to Item 10, which is the remuneration policy for the Supervisory Board. And that is immediately opening up voting block 3, which comprises Item 10 up to and including #14. 10 is a change in the remuneration policy for the Supervisory Board. And Mr. Lamouche will explain the proposal for the new remuneration policy for Supervisory Board for the period 2022-2026. But before he does that, I would like to mention that on the 1st of April, the draft remuneration policy for the Supervisory Board was published together with the convocation on the ASM website. It also contains an overview of the changes to this concept compared to the remuneration policy 2020. Didier, please explain this item to us.

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will repeat what I already alluded to before.

[ Then you don't have to. ] Okay.

No, but I can repeat, it's going to be fast. The actual remuneration policy, actually, as you said, the Supervisory Board was adopted actually the current one by the AGM on May 18, '20. If you look in detail, the last increase in the remuneration of the Supervisory Board -- actually members, was in 2018, so 4 years ago. And it was at that time approved by the AGM in date of May 28, 2018. The proposed adjustment that we have -- that we are proposing to you and which is included in our annual report in the remuneration level of the Supervisory Board are directly related to actually the growth of the company since 2018, the increased complexity of the company, the expansion of the activity of the Supervisory Board and also, obviously, the same way we proceeded for the Management Board. We also do the same for the Supervisory Board. They are supported by a benchmark, which has been established by outside consulting firm -- and, in this case, PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Okay, Didier. Thank you. [Interpreted] Let me look at whether you have any questions. Maybe Mr. [ Frager ] has a question. Yes, he does. Thank you.

[Interpreted] Well, I did have the question earlier about how to postpone it, but my question is just reading on COVID this summer, and we might have a lockdown -- so is, again, rumor -- so again, considering that hourly fee of EUR 200, can we keep the supervisors happy enough? Because if we go into lockdown, again, you will need a lot of time.

[Interpreted] I don't understand how you connect COVID to remuneration of supervisors, but it hasn't changed since 2018. And it's just now I am leaving -- I am leaving, and it's good to keep the other supervisors on board. That's it. But I don't see the relationship to COVID.

[Interpreted] Well, I'll tell you. Because of COVID, people have said in surveys that they had to work so much harder and that the workload has increased so much. So that must apply to you as supervisors, too. And I understand that it was difficult. So if it's very difficult, I understand that also a Supervisory Board has a lot of after care and it's important that also supervisors feel that they received remuneration that they do.

[Interpreted] And I checked with my colleagues, and they all find it an honor to be a supervisor on this Board. And there is a nice modest pocket money. And I can assure you also, during a pandemic, they were fine with all of this. Yes. So that is all I want to hear, Mr.[ Frager ] says. Thank you.

[Interpreted] Are you now going to leave us?

[Interpreted] That's a different item on the agenda, by the way. Right. Looking at any other questions for the remuneration policy of the Supervisory Board. Let's take a vote. You know the procedure. [Voting]

[Interpreted] Let's hold on to that, and that's -- let's move to Item 11, which is the composition of the Supervisory Board. And as you know, Pauline -- Ms. Pauline van der Meer Mohr will be my successor as Chair of the Supervisory Board. But again, we will get back to that later on in this meeting. So this is only one voting item. It's the reappointment of Mr. Marc de Jong as a supervisor. In accordance with the applicable timetable, the term of office of Mr. de Jong expires. And in accordance with Article 22 Paragraph 3 of the Articles of Association and Article 2:133 of the Dutch Civil Code, and in order to maintain adequate continuity and experience within the Supervisory Board, the Supervisory Board has drawn up a binding nomination to reappoint Mr. de Jong as a member of the Supervisory Board for a period of 4 years ending after the Annual General Meeting in 2026. And that is in accordance with the principle [ 222 ] of the revised code. Is there anybody who wishes to take the floor? If not, looking at the chat, nothing, then cast your vote, please. [Voting]

[Interpreted] And then I'm going to assume that you have cast your vote. Moving on to Item 12, which is the appointment of the company's auditor for the accounting year 2022. You know this item because it's on the agenda each year. So it concerns the appointment of the external auditor for the financial year 2022. You have been able to read the information in the explanatory notes. So we ask you to extend the appointment of our current accountant and that relates to the financial year 2022. I see no questions. So looking at the chat -- oh, it's called Share message. So I'm saying chair all the time, it's the chat but it's called Share message. Right. Cast your vote, please. [Voting]

[Interpreted] Then Item 13, which is a very familiar one. It consists of 2 parts, and we have separate votes on it. First,is 13A, which is the designation of the Board of Management as a competent body to issue ordinary shares and grant rights to take ordinary shares and to exclude -- sorry, not yet. That right is limited to a maximum of 10% of the entire subscribed ordinary capital of the company on the date of registration. No questions? I see that there is nothing. Okay, you can cast your vote. [Voting]

[Interpreted] If you have done so, then move on to 13B, which is also a voting item, which is about excluding preemptive rights. So in accordance with Article 7, Paragraph 5 of the Articles of Association, the General Meeting of Shareholders may for a period of 18 months from the day of its meeting, designate the body of the company with the -- subject to the approval of the Supervisory Board, and authorize it to limit or exclude the right of preemption of existing shareholders or exclude rights to acquire ordinary shares that are issued. So let me see whether there are any questions about that. If not, then please cast your vote. [Voting]

[Interpreted] And then let's go to Item 14, which is the final one of the last block and the final voting item of this meeting which is the authorization of the Management Board to repurchase or buyback -- buy back shares, ordinary shares up to a maximum of 10% of the issued share capital. Again, you have been able to read up on that in explanatory notes. And if you have -- don't have any questions -- yes, no questions in the chat either, so you can cast your vote. [Voting]

[Interpreted] And I would like to point out -- this is the final voting item of the meeting. You only have a few seconds left to cast your vote. And that is the end of Block 3. We collect the votes. We process the results, and I will announce the results of all voting items, and then we will go over all results again. But first, Block 3. First of all, the last voted item was Item 14. Yes, 13A and B as well. All right. So we see that 35,377,449 votes have adopted Item 10. Then 569,214 against, which is 1.58%; and abstention, 134,433. Then item 11, which was the reappointment of Mr. de Jong to the Supervisory Board. So adopted with 35,179,313, 99.01%, against 350,626, it's 0.99% and 551,157 abstentions. Marc, congratulations. Then also Item 12, the appointment of the company's auditor for the financial year. So it's KPMG for the financial year 2022. 36,045,075 votes in favor, 99.91%; against, 31,468, 0.09%; and abstentions, 4,553. Meaning that these items have been dealt with and have all been adopted by the meeting. So we would like to thank you for that. Then that concludes it all, and that is any other business. So we did not receive any questions for any other business, but obviously, you do have the opportunity now to ask your question if you want to. And I see that this is not the case. Oh, my apologies.

[Interpreted] Stefanie Claessens on behalf of the VBDO. We see in ASM International a company that is leading in the field of ESG. And I think about the SDG 17 in which partnerships help out each other in getting to the sustainability goals. How does ASM International use its international position to help other companies like peer suppliers -- other companies? You have already talked about your role with the [ RV ] and your chair position there. But maybe can you give any other examples or a future view on how you would like to share your expertise?

[Interpreted] Thank you for your compliments. First of all, and indeed very important to indeed help out and influence others. And I would like to give that question to Paul, I assume.

[Interpreted] Yes. Thank you for that question or your comment. We do hope to be able to inspire other with our ESG policy that we have communicated. Our direct influence is especially towards suppliers and, of course, our partnerships with customers. That is also what we focus on, and that's the most important thing to do to reach that potential and to reach the goal in 2035, which in itself is quite a challenging target. But we see a lot of progress and what we see with customers and suppliers, quite a challenge. We can only hope that other companies and other institutions see what we're doing and join us. We do not have ongoing efforts at this moment to team up. So the focus is really on us, Scope 1 and 2 and Scope 3 regarding suppliers and clients. And that's it.

[Interpreted] Is that sufficient? Thank you. I am getting a message on one of the screens. So 13A, B and 14, we haven't shown. We should do that again. That's yes. There we go. Obviously, yes, we haven't covered those items. Let's do that. So Item 13A, the right to issue common shares. So adopted with 99.24%; 273,661 votes against, so 0.76%; and abstentions, 4,771. Then 13B, 35,489,626 votes voted for, 98.37%; against 586,949, 1.63%, and 4,521 votes abstained. Then finally, item 14 was adopted with 35,479,695 votes, 98.47%; against 552,862, 1.53%; and abstentions, 48,539. Well, now we have covered all items and all blocks in full. We have covered any other business, which means that we are now getting to Item 16, which is closure. And as I said, I will step down as Chairman and member of the Supervisory Board after this general meeting. It's been an insanely beautiful adventure for me. And when I was appointed to the Supervisory Board in 2010, the company looked quite different. With a turnover of EUR 500 million and a loss of EUR 62 million, it did not yet look like the ASMI of today. But already related, the loss of EUR 26 million was converted into a profit of also EUR 62 million. And then our development of ALD technology turned out and you've heard much about it, turned out to bring ASM into the top league in the semicon industry. And ever since, Supervisory Board members have all changed as well as the Management Board. And I would like to thank the management team, the Executive Board, but also especially you, as shareholders, for your loyalty to the company and also the confidence that you placed in the Management Board. I really appreciate the dialogue with all of you -- and in the Supervisory Board, Pauline van der Meer Mohr will take over my duties, and I wish her the best of luck, and I will straightaway give her flowers. Pauline, I wish you great good luck and success in this beautiful challenge that you're taking on. And you're stuck with the flowers. It's wonderful to get such a big bunch, but where to put it? And it's a really full table of lots of electronics that you cannot see from where you're sitting, but Well, of course, in the lounge, we are very happy to offer you the old Chair of the Supervisory Board. But of course, also the new Boards will be there, snacks, drinks, what have you. And I hand over to you.

[Interpreted] Thank you, Martin. Shall we, as the new Board then pay the bill for the snacks and the drinks? Thank you very much again, and I'm going to give you flowers presently as well. I'm sure you understand that and the table will be very full indeed. Because I want to like -- I want to thank you very much for your leadership, your participation, your chairmanship. You started 2010, 12 years ago. So no longer could you stay, definitely not in view of the various codes that apply. And in recent 2 years, you've been Chair of the Supervisory Board. And in this period, ASMI grew into a completely different company, as you also said. We are now a listed company on AEX as one of the 25 biggest companies in the Netherlands. We can be rightly proud of this company with wonderful people. There's been enormous marketing capitalization, huge talents among us, and you have contributed to all of this, and it is under your responsibility that these things grew and developed and we've become market leader for ALD and has various segments in which it is very successful. It doesn't do just one thing. And so, I would like to thank you very much for the part you played. Also, again, today, I've watched you as Chair with great admiration, it's almost corporate quiz mastering the way you get us through meetings like this. Thank you so much. And I'm happy to take over from you, and I can only hope that in the coming years, I will be able to do it as smoothly as you always have. And I would also like to thank you, our shareholders, for the trust that you've placed in ASMI, in us as supervisors and as members of the Management Board. And as the new Chair, I will definitely continue to continue this successful journey together with the other members of the Supervisory Board and Management Board and everybody involved with us. And of course, we hope to speak to you later during drinks. And this is then my first act as Chairman. I don't have a hammer, but I close this meeting, and thank you most warmly for your participation to this shareholders' meeting. Thank you. [Portions of this transcript that are marked [Interpreted] were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]